this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
238 points (97.6% liked)

politics

19072 readers
3672 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
all 27 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 89 points 5 months ago

Republicans FORCING the teaching of Christianity in Schools is PROOF that DEMOCRATS are Indoctrinating our kids!

[–] [email protected] 65 points 5 months ago

Republicans support grooming kids to be christian white nationalists. So much for separation of church and state.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I cannot wait to discriminate against people who went to school in Florida in a few years when I'm hiring

[–] [email protected] 38 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's not discrimination if they're uniquely unqualified due to their sub-standard education.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

Yeah, those kids will suddenly end up completely unprepared for college. But then again, that makes for great future Republican voters.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 5 months ago (1 children)

There's no better way to assure atheism than this. Welcome to the club kids.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago

For the intelligent, critical thinking ones sure. Of course the rest of their education is designed to prevent that whenever possible.

I like to think of myself as reasonably intelligent and self-aware, but it took me about 15 years after moving out of my childhood home to fully break free of the indoctrination I'd received.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 months ago (2 children)

These religious fanatics are using one of the fundamental privileges this country affords them to restrict that same privilege for others.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

Right, the article already said they're Republicans.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago (2 children)

One Joyce at the top of the comments left a very poignant message; one I share.

And the response to her?

What would Jesus have said was the definition of Christian

There is no way that is a good-faith question. As if there aren’t several meaty books dedicated Jesus teaching things like…

  • Share everything you have with the less fortunate.
  • Welcome and embrace strangers/foreigners.
  • Never judge others. Focus on your own shortcomings and BE the change by living it.
  • Pay your taxes.
  • Feed, clothe, and shelter the poor and needy.
  • Help those with medical needs.
  • Call out civil/religious leaders when they exhibit hypocrisy or bad doctrine.

Need I go on?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (5 children)

the jesus you're talking about is no longer a thing to them. white republican jesus hates poor people, loves guns, and never tips the waitress (because they see NO contradiction in bleating 'pull yourself up by the bootstraps' while simultaneously preventing anyone from pulling themselves up by their bootstraps).

"but how can they just change what jesus is all about?" you might be asking

the more important question is: when is everyone going to stop assuming that christofascists need anything to make any sense?

edit: forgot to post the link https://www.rawstory.com/trump-evangelicals-2663078391/

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

Al Faranken's Supply Side Jesus comes to mind

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for sharing that. This jumped out at me…

Moore, who has been an outspoken critic of many evangelicals' embrace of Trump, argues that this has led him to conclude that American evangelical Christianity is now in crisis.

I’m a millennial who raised in an evangelical home. This isn’t something that is happening “just now” it was this way for decades, if not centuries, before I was ever born.

I have more than a few memories of pointing out to adults that their politics, speech, and behavior were at odds with scripture, only to be called a heretic to my face, as a kid. They are literally the scribes and pharisees that Jesus rants about for the entirety of Matthew 23.

I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of people who call themselves “Christian” are not remotely followers of Jesus, his teaching, or his philosophy. They’ve just stolen his brand for personal gain.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

But also this isn’t a sudden change in doctrine, it’s like a century in the making in its current form, but the groundwork is as old as it being a state religion. Nothing is incapable of being corrupted by the powerful

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)

While he had some bangers he also had some pretty bad takes too: slaves obey your masters/not changing the Exodus rules for slavery, faith healer bs, substitutionary atonement, etc.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Yeah, but the christofascists love to pick and choose what they believe out of the Bible, so that must mean we can too!

/s

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Not to undermine the ickiness of the slavery thing - because it is still very much fucked up - but it was a very different paradigm than chattel slavery. Slaves were considered a member of a household rather than property*, and were not generally born into slavery or trapped in slavery. So “slaves obey your masters” is almost literally meant the same way as “children obey your parents”… that is, “be loyal to the head of the household.”

And the “substitutionary atonement” thing is totally not scriptural at all. That’s one of those things that Catholics just added because they felt like it… along with the heaven/hell afterlife and a whole slew of other stuff. Jesus was very clear about how people are expected to behave and the consequences/rewards of being shitty or righteous, respectively.

* Except when buying a wife or concubine. They were absolutely property… albeit it property with special rights and privileges.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Exodus 21 20-21: 20 "Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, 21 but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property."

Sounds like property you can beat as long as they don't die within a day or two, nobody should treat anyone that way that's horrific.

Substitutionary atonement is the whole gospel story. Jesus sacrifices his life to atone for Adam's original sin of eating the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that somehow infected the rest of humanity. Even if you believed it were true you shouldn't place the punishment for crimes of ancestors or parents on their children, that's fucked up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

The problem here is that the words you see in english translations of scripture are frequently connotatively incorrect… often on purpose (see: the word “hell”, a word and concept that does not exist whatsoever anywhere in scripture).

In this case, the word property is problematic, because it carries certain connotations for us, as modern, english-speaking readers. The root word is keseph, which literally means “money” or “monetary value”. So a more accurate translation to english is “…because the slave is valuable.” But even that is somewhat misleading because there is an overt implication of a household relationship, and this same rule would hold true for a head-of-household’s own children.

Again, I am not trying to diminish the many horrific acts portrayed in scripture, but in many (if not most) cases, the context is radically different than what our universally horrible english translations infer. Now, WHY they are all so bad a whole ‘nother can of worms.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Nobody should treat a household member or child the way the bible describes slaves should be kept, whether they use the actual word slave in the original translation they are describing how to own people you can beat as long as they don't die within a couple days. They are talking about the allowed treatment for when you keep non-hebrew slaves, you don't have to excuse it saying they were treated well because this is describing how they should be and were treated.

Edit: Of course I'm looking through it with a lens of modern ethics, but one of the selling points of religion is a dogma that never has to change because they know absolute morality from prophetic futures and can tell what is going to happen except apparently when it doesn't

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Don't be surprised at this shit. After all, this is a country that 'pledges allegiance' in school. That's that whole country, not just Florida. And that's to say nothing of the flag worship.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Wtf is “popular.info”? Got a more reliable source?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/popular-information/

I never heard of it, either, but sounds reliable.